Citadel Theatre presents ‘It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play’ Nov. 13 to Dec. 13
Today’s streaming audiences may find it hard to imagine a time when movies weren’t available at home. Relatively recent films didn’t appear on TV until 1961; before then, audiences could revisit films after their theatrical runs through radio adaptations. From 1934 to 1955, The Lux Radio Theatre broadcast live adaptations of popular movies and Broadway plays, often with the original casts. “It’s a Wonderful Life,” with James Stewart and Donna Reed reprising their film roles, aired in March 1947, just three months after the film opened. Though the actors knew their roles well, live performance brought an unpredictable energy; the spirit that Citadel Theatre will re-create onstage.
Director Jack Hickey, artistic director of Oak Park Festival Theatre from 2002 to 2018, promises to capture live radio’s controlled chaos.
“We’ll show the sort of frenetic activity like script pages flying all over the stage as actors rush to get into place, and sound effects being created live to complement the dialogue with split-second timing. This is the sort of activity that radio audiences at home obviously couldn’t see, but our audiences will watch a polished performance being created in the midst of a process that had no room for error and no chance for do-overs.”
Jeff Award-winning designers Bob Knuth and Rachel Sypniewski will transport audiences to the 1940s. Knuth, whose hyperrealistic Citadel sets include “Eureka Day,” “Admissions” and “Misery,” will re-create a 1940s radio studio, while Sypniewski will dress the cast in postwar attire.
Brian Parry, John Dooley and Cait Kelly of the six-person cast will showcase their versatility as some 50 characters. Theatergoers will also have a role: playing the studio audience at a live radio broadcast.
A stellar cast will perform this holiday classic
Parry — whose Chicago stage credits include King Lear, Willy Loman and Richard Nixon — will also play the mean Mr. Potter, originally portrayed by Lionel Barrymore. Jake Harrison Murphy will play George Bailey, James Stewart’s film role. Suburban audiences know Murphy from productions including “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Naperville’s BrightSide Theatre, where he played Puck. Rachel J. Jones will play Mary Bailey. A classically trained actor with credits across the United States, she played Juliet in “Romeo and Juliet” at Oak Park Festival Theatre. Caleb Ryan Jones will create live sound effects and play the broadcast’s stage manager.
The magic of this story never fades
At its heart, “It’s a Wonderful Life” is still the story of a man who learns on Christmas Eve how much he has mattered to his family and community. Audiences keep returning to it, from repeated TV showings in the 1970s and ’80s to the stage productions that have become a holiday staple in recent decades. Perhaps every time an audience sees “It’s a Wonderful Life,” another angel gets its wings.
“It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play” runs 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays Nov. 13 through Dec. 13; plus 1 p.m. Wednesdays, Nov. 18 and Dec. 2, at Citadel Theatre on the Lake Forest School District’s west campus, 300 S. Waukegan Road, Lake Forest. Tickets are available online at citadeltheatre.org, or by phone, at 847-735-8554, ext. 1.